Sawatch

Avalanche

John Mackinnon ยท Feb 28, 2015

View on map

Weather

Overcast skies trending to Obscured in the afternoon. Light snow (S-1) starting at 1400 and ramped up to S2 by 1700. Temps were mild and averaged about -3C throughout the day. Winds were light from the west and we didn't observe any blowing snow in the valleys but the ridge-tops became obscured in the early afternoon.

Snowpack

HS averaged 110 cm in a north facing glade at 10,850 feet where we dug. We found 30 cm of storm snow since 2/20. 15 cm of snow has accumulated since 2/26. All the late February storm snow is resting on a mostly faceted and weak snowpack. Compression tests showed repeatable sudden planar tests results on the 2/26 interface down 15 cm, the 2/20 interface down 35 cm, and the 1/11 interface down 40 cm. We also got several sudden collapse test results on sintering DH in the lower portion of the snowpack. (See attached profile) We heard 2 moderate collapses while we were breaking trail--one on the valley floor and the other on a north aspect BTL.

Avalanche

We did not observe any avalanche activity